The Halo Universe Expands

One of the most exciting announcements to come from X06 this week is the news that Halo will be branching off in several new directions.  As well as Halo 3, announced at this year’s E3 conference in Los Angeles, we will soon see the arrival of episodic content to the Halo series from Wingnut Interactive, the new developer from Lord of the Rings visionary director Peter Jackson.

“Microsoft has built an amazing living canvas with Xbox 360 and Xbox Live on which the best storytellers of our time can deliver their masterpieces.  They have fundamentally changed how people think about games,” said Peter Jackson, Academy Award-winning writer, producer and director.  “My mission, together with Microsoft Game Studios, is to push the boundaries of game development and what the future vision of gaming is.  From a movie-maker’s point of view, it is clear to me that the Xbox 360 platform is the stage where storytellers can work their craft in the same way they do today with movies and books but taking it further with interactivity.”

We’ll also see the epic battlefields of the Halo universe open up in the strategy genre with the arrival of Halo Wars. If you’ve ever wanted to command an army of Scorpion tanks into a Covenant base, X06 brings you the answer to your prayers with the announcement of Halo Wars.  Created by the masterminds at Ensemble Studios (the guys behind the Age of Empires games), you will soon be able to experience the Halo universe in new ways.  Epic battles give rise to huge offensives as you take command of the human UNSC forces in their bitter fight with the alien Covenant.